Deutsche Bank's Top "Crime Fighter" Quits After Only Six Months At The Job

It will probably not come as a big surprise that the head of Deutsche Bank’s global anti-financial crime unit, a post also known as the bank's top "crime fighter", plans to leave that position after just six months at the bank, and will be replaced as soon as next week, Germany's Manager Magazin first reported.

Peter Hazlewood, who joined Deutsche Bank to oversee anticrime compliance as recently as July 2016, could stay at the German lender in a different position, but that hasn’t been determined, the WSJ reports.

Considering the ongoing barrage of civil and criminal accusations lobbed relentless at the German lender, which over the past few years has been accused of manipulating and rigging virtually every market, culminating with the recent RMBS settlements with the DOJ which briefly sent its stock price to all time lows amid concerns of bank failure in late 2016, it is perhaps more surprising that he lasted as long as he did.

The job includes overseeing controls to prevent money laundering and assuring compliance with other financial laws and regulations. The anti-financial crime chief reports to Sylvie Matherat, Deutsche Bank’s Chief Regulatory Officer and a member of the management board.

It was not immediately clear what the reason was behind the accelerated transition.

The WSJ added that Deutsche Bank execs plan to name a replacement as soon as next week, pending management approval of an internal candidate who’s likely to take the position.

Hazlewood, whose official title is global head of anti-financial crime and group money-laundering reporting officer, previously worked at JPMorgan, as well as HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered PLC, two other banks embroiled in allegations of global impropriety.

Deutsche Bank has faced a series of legal and regulatory hurdles including improving its policing of trades and controls to avoid violations of sanctions and money laundering. After a high-level management shake-up in 2015, which included the appointment of John Cryan as chief executive and a near-complete makeover of the management ranks, senior executives have focused in part on overhauling compliance, seeking to end a series of legal missteps that have cost Deutsche Bank billions of dollars.

Cryan is trying to resolve the bank’s remaining legal battles, following last year's $7.2 billion settlement with the U.S. over its role in the sale of mortgage securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Deutsche Bank is still being probed by U.S. and U.K. authorities over whether it failed to catch transactions that may have moved billions of dollars out of Russia from 2012 to 2015, Bloomberg added.

After settling the U.S. case last month, Cryan said in a memo to staff that an internal investigation by the bank had found “no indication of a breach of sanctions” in Russia. The probe did detect “deficiencies” in the bank’s systems and controls that were being addressed, according to the memo.